Wednesday, October 31, 2007

I know you missed it. "It" being the saga of Jeremy Clark-Erskine. It's scary.

I still get hits every week from all over the United States and Canada generated by web searches for this guy. There is news about him.

He's filed a writ of habeas corpus in Indiana. He's in jail there, but it seems like he's not been charged with escape or another crime. I have to ask law enforcement (because I know I'm getting hits from government agencies about him):

What the fuck?

I'm serious. What the fuck? Why is this guy not being charged? I've filed complaints against him for several crimes. Is Illinois or Cook County or even the City of Countryside doing anything? No. I was told by the arresting officer that Jeremy was arrested with the property I reported stolen a month before. But none of my local officials wants to claim jurisdiction. Hey, if Indiana can't seem to charge him, why not file charges here? Bring him here for trail and put him in jail in Cook County with the gang bangers.

And as for Indiana, come on guys!If nothing else, he was in your jail and according to your officials he walked away without authorization.Walked away!First of all, how do you let someone walk away from jail?Secondly, isn’t walking away from jail a crime?When are you going to do something about that?You also know that he left the state.Have you checked out how?I bet he did some bad stuff that you could punish him for.I bet you could find out what. He used credit cards in his name the whole way.Did you look into that?

And Wisconsin, what are you doing?Jeremy Erskine was arrested with one of your driver’s licenses. It’s in the Jasper, AB arrest record.If I could get that record, so can you.I bet you could find out where he got the identification.Could it have been your Kenosha facility?Maybe?And how would he have gotten that?He would have had to use a document proving that he lived in Wisconsin.Since he didn’t live in Wisconsin, could it have been a real document?

Finally, can the Federal government step in?Certainly there’s something here for you to look into.In fact, when CookCounty gave me the runaround about Mr. Clark-Erskine charged for what I think he did to me, they told me that that particular thing should be handled by the FBI.The FBI referred me to the Secret Service.The Secret Service told to go back to CookCounty.When will someone take responsibility for seeing that this man doesn’t hurt more people?

Based on the number of people who have contacted me through this blog, and the number of hits related to his name I get, I have an idea of how many people are concerned about this man’s existence and potential freedom.I also have an idea of the number of people who believe they have been his victims in the last year and a half.And we are not getting justice.We’ve found the resources to find each other.Why can’t law enforcement and the courts find the resources to investigate what we’re telling you and keep him in jail!

Wedding plans have been switched. The January 20 plan in Flossmoor has been ditched. Instead, we are going to married one month from tomorrow at a hotel on Michigan Avenue. Less stress.

How? About 1/4 the guest list and a professional planner and venue. The only things I really have to do at this point is finish signing contracts and take my dress to have it taken up. There were also some practical and financial reasons for wanting to move sooner.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Seriously, WTF? I mean I'm used to bad hair days. A little too dry, and I get frizzy stuck-my-finger-in-a-light-socket hair. A little too humid, and I become Rosanne Roseannadanna with a Chicago accent. But bad knitting day? What's up with that.

All day today I've been trying to get something done on the Rheingold Wrap. My quota is 10 rows per day. Some days there are more, and some days less. But today was 4 rows. Nearly every time I got to the end of the chart, which is repeated five times per row, I'd find I'd miss counted and I had to tink back nearly to the start of the chart and redo it. AAAAnd...Usually I made the same mistake every time I came to the same point. Oy. Oyvey.

Now there is no getting discouraged. Tomorrow is another (SnB, not SNL) day.

Sunday, October 21, 2007

I thought I'd get a lot done on the Rheingold wrap this weekend. After all, I came to Maryland with the intention of not doing nothing. All weekend. To me, not doing nothing usually involves intensive knitting, and that sounds good to me right now. I'm 2.25 chart repeats into the wrap, and trying to maintain a serious case of finish-it-up-itis until it's done. I thought I could do one entire repeat this weekend, but it turns out that I'm really doing nothing. Not even knitting.

The Amazing E tells me that the wrap is beautiful. However, he read the blog the other night and had to call me.

You bought more yarn!Yes, I needed yarn for the wrap. It came all the way from Scotland. Besides, I have to have something nice to keep we warm on our wedding day.

But it's a lot more yarn. Look 1, 2, 3, ... 7, 8, 9. Yes, it's a lot of yarn. And I've already taken 7 other skeins out of that box.

How big is this thing going to be?!24 " by 56"

How much did you spend? $200?No.

$300?No. Not even close.

You spent $400 on the yarn!No. I spent much less than that. But it was in Pounds.How much?Less than the first number, when you convert it into dollars.

You've like...doubled... your stash. Out of the wedding budget!No. Okay. First of all, this is not stash. That would require the intention of stashing it. As you can see, it is cast on. Not stashed. Second of all you clearly do not have a grasp of the size of my stash. Last, yarn always comes out of the yarn budget....

I think he finally realized he's marrying a knitter, and not just some lady who knits. It's a hard realization, but this conversation had to happen some time.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Last Wednesday, my kit for Jade Staremore'sRheingold Wrap came in the mail, and I unwrapped it with the Tinley Park girls. The kit came with the pattern and a box full of the Starmore 2-ply Hebridean. The yarn itself is very lofty and somewhat soft. It's only a little crunchy. The colors themselves are slightly variegated, making them beautiful.I cast the project on Friday, and have since completed one 38 row pattern repeat. The wrap is knit in the round, 177 stitches per row. I'm doing it on a size 3 Addi Turbo. There will be a steek to make it flat. Only 11 more repeats to go my January 20th! I'm afraid I'm going to have to figure out how to knit in my sleep.In the non-knitting world of pretties, the orchid plant I bought in Hawaii is blooming.Lastly, congratulations Tzurriz. We all love you.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Really, it hasn't been laziness keeping me away. I've been playing on Ravelry and knitting a lot and working on the wedding plans. If fact I'm in Maryland now. You can see for yourself what I've been up to on Ravelry. I've gotten through some of my stash. (At least the sock yarn box and the bag o' crap box. )

One Maimuţă is finished. It's Gypsy Girl in in the Winter Solstice colorway and made on Knitpicks size 1 1/2 needles. This sock only took 8 days, and I've got the second cast on already. I should be able to get more knitting done in the near future, as I'll be working in downtown Chicago at a great bastion of capitalism until I move to Maryland in January.And therefore will be taking the train to and from work.Wedding plans are creeping along. We've tentatively picked a date and a place to have the shindig. We've inquired about the band. I even got Amazing E to come to the store and try registering. This was not an altogether successful endeavor, but it was a start. E also has an engagement ring. Aww. It's made of Tungsten Carbide, and is therefore very cool (to a geeky engineer such as the one I'm marrying).Yesterday we went to Delaware to order my dress. There's a store there that carries last season's designs for dresses, and happen to have the one I will wear. The great thing is that these dresses are half off. The bad thing is the drive to Delaware. It's a couple of hours. Well, I suppose it's not that bad. I got to see more of the state I'll be living in soon. But we drove there so I could do the measuring and ordering while E stayed in the car. After that, we drove around and went to the beach and then home.

Pretty soon all other projects will be put away in favor of wedding knitting...

Thursday, October 04, 2007

You appear to be a Knitting Purist. You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes lament losing half of your local yarn shop to garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun fur scarves the bane of knitting society and prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of an elitist but you know that you've been doing this craft long enough to respect the history behind it and honor it with beautiful piece that can last a lifetime. http://marniemaclean.comTake this quiz!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Most of you know, the name of this blog is a homophone for my real name. In a few short months, my name will be changing. Well, it's not really so passive as that. Fortunately in this day and age, I have a choice. We considered not changing my name, thought about him taking my last name (because it's hilarious), and about me changing my name. I have chosen to change both my first and last name. I've been procrastinating on changing my first name for about 10 years. I want to, but I haven't wanted to go through the paperwork.

My given first name is ridiculously Irish and Catholic for a Jewish woman to have. There is a good reason for this. My father's family hails from such Irish places as the Dingle Peninsula and County Mayo (G-d help us!). However, my married name will be Miryaminsertridiculouslyjewishlastnamehere.

So what will I do about the name of this blog? Can I change the name and switch over all the content?